First, choose Tumblr – Not to highlight the obvious, but there are certain opportunities and advantages to being part of the community. Part of Tong’s job is reaching out to fashion brands, developing new features for fashion bloggers, and managing Fashion Week initiatives. Tong explains, “Your posts are much more likely to be re-blogged and shared, providing you more exposure than you could get anywhere else.”
Be consistent – “This is key in maintaining a follower base,” says Tong. “You want to train your readers to know when or how often you’ll post. Make sure to ‘like’ and re-blog others’ posts.”
Make the picture pretty – Tumblr users get off on beautiful photos so either take hi-res’ photos (people especially love highly saturated images) or re-blog quality pictures, always giving credit where needed, of course.
Create your voice – This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to write from a first-person perspective or post pictures of yourself. “It’s easy to be anonymous and still curate one of the most beautiful fashion blogs on Tumblr,” says Tong.
Learn from and follow others who already do it well – Tong said, “Jamie Beck (fromme-toyou.tumblr.com) has done an exceptional job marketing herself ever since she joined Tumblr’s Fashion Week initiatives this past season. She’s gone on to work with some absolutely incredible people, including Oscar de la Renta, Coco Rocha, and Christian Louboutin. You can also find top players in Tumblr’s fashion feature section (https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fashion).”
Getting in here will guarantee that you’ll amass some followers, so be sure to tag your posts and give credit where needed. A hint: Original content gets attention.
You can always rely on buzzworthy topics – Unsurprisingly, Tumblr users are obsessed with what we’re all obsessed with. “Gaga, McQueen, and Alexa Chung. Always Alexa,” says Tong. “If you need to resort to it, photos of puppies and kittens. It doesn’t matter that they’re not fashion-related. They’re cute.”
